Happy Christmas!
At the start of our last full week of term before the holidays, I used assembly to remind the boys to consider (just ahead of Christmas jumper day) a key point of reflection regarding where we are with Christmas. It is a rather well-trodden path of thought for those of us of an older generation, but we must remember that for our young boys these messages are often fresh, vital and formative in how they influence the world they inhabit.
I began by recollecting how, at this time last year, I spoke to them of what feels to many such a powerful part of the Christmas nativity: that the central figure in this story, piercing through the veil between the godly and the earthly, is a newborn baby, surrounded by the most humble of beginnings. There he lies, the saviour of mankind, the embodiment of God. And as those who know the story of the Passion of Christ at Easter, we should hold this moment and what it represents in terms of love and our future gratitude close to our hearts.
Next, I introduced the boys to a multicoloured mountain that has been rising up in the Atacama desert with the Andes range sitting majestically in the background. It has grown over just the last few years but with the power of today's satellites, it is already visible from space. It is, in fact, a huge accumulation of discarded clothing from all across the world. Unsurprisingly, given the nature of their purpose, Christmas jumpers have been a noted ingredient.
This mountain has been gaining attention by a number of means, but I learned of it through the social media of author Robert MacFarlane who, with his usual eye for detail and the poetic within the natural world, observes the spiritual contrast between the Andes, millions of years in the making, and the man-made contribution building before them. At Christmas time, somewhere amidst this leapt out the contrast between the awesome majesty of God’s earth, all that the nativity story represents in terms of a gift of true worth, and the temporal short-sighted wastefulness of consumerism.
As I did with the boys, I would encourage us all in this season to keep ‘front and centre’ that – though the latest fleeting fads and fashions are mightily enticing – we will be richest through the most important thing we can ever give to one another: our time and our connection. I look forward to sharing the wonderful end-of-term events (and Choir Time for the choristers) with those of you that will be able to come: from the Pre-Prep nativity, to this evening’s Carols and Corelli, to the wonderful Carol Service on Wednesday. And may I wish you all a wonderful Christmas when it arrives.
Tim Butcher
Headmaster
